At the start of 2011 much of the Horsham central business district was under water, as the region was hit with a "one-in-200 year" weather event.
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The flood, which affected many towns in the Wimmera, was in part due to a La Nina weather pattern - the same bringing wet conditions to parts of Northern New South Wales and Queensland in 2022.
With the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting a wet spring, the SES is on the front foot when it comes to flood risk in Horsham, with a new community information session to prepare the community for the potential impacts of riverine flooding.
SES midwest community resilience coordinator Clare Mintern was the author of Horsham's local flood guide and said the session was built upon lessons learned from the 2011 event.
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"I was in the Wimmera during January 2011, and the problem I saw was that a lot of people did not know where to go or what it all meant," Ms Mintern said.
"A lot of people don't know what to do if they are in a flood risk area."
The Horsham Local Flood Guide contains information complied by SES on which areas would be affected by different flood levels, from minor floods to the type of rainfall seen in 2011 and beyond.
Ms Mintern said it was important people recognised whether they lived in an at risk-area, and how to read warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology about flooding.
"When a flood occurs the bureau will forecast what the peak height will be before it occurs, and there is a table in there with what will happen at each height," Ms Mintern said.
"It is trying to bridge those gaps in knowledge so that people do know if they are forecasting a 4.5m, they know it is going to be big and they have the mapping.
"The focus is to reduce that anxiety, if the bureau is forecasting major flooding they don't know what that means. I have seen that as a problem."
The Horsham Community Flood Information Session will be hosted at Horsham Neighbourhood House on Sunday, August 21 between 12 - 4pm.
Food and drinks will be provided, and attendees will be able to bring home copies of the Horsham Local Flood Guide and various flood plain maps of the region.
"We also have lots of our volunteers from the Horsham SES unit there. They will bring their storm trailer and we can just answer some questions about what SES volunteers do, and show them a bit of the equipment they use," Ms Mintern said.
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"We will also have a lot of give aways too, stickers and books. Lots of things for kids as well. We will have lots of food and drink if people want to come across and answer some questions."
With heavy rainfall predicted for the remainder of 2022, Ms Mintern implored the community to learn how to prepare and respond to a flood situation.
"The bureau is forecasting above-average rainfall from now through to the end of October. They are constantly updating a revising it depending on what information they have in their models," Ms Mintern said.
"Victoria has been quite lucky. In early January Creswick was flooded, and we also had some storms come through mid-January with lots of trees down and building damage in the Wimmera.
"There is a lot of new people to the area that don't have any idea of what happens during floods. It is important that they come along and get an idea of what the risks are and where they fit within that."
For more information, visit ses.vic.gov.au/plan-and-stay-safe.
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